Soda bread is an amazingly easy, versatile recipe and has stood the test of time as an Irish classic because it is so simple.

This wild garlic Irish soda bread is a no-knead, no-fuss style of bread which is our kind of recipe! You can change this classic by adding lots of tasty things like sea-salt, different cheeses, and herbs but this time I added wild garlic! It’s delicious on its own or served with a warm bowl of soup.

Wild garlic Irish soda bread recipe

Ingredients

- 7oz of wholegrain flour

- 10oz strong white flour

- 1½ buttermilk

- 1 generous teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

- 1 large free-range egg

- 1 teaspoon honey

- 1 handful of wild garlic leaves, roughly chopped

- A pinch of salt.

Method

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease and flour a 2lb loaf tin. Combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda, wild garlic and salt in a mixing bowl. In a Pyrex measuring jug, measure out the buttermilk and then whisk in the egg and honey.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and then pour in the wet mixture. Add a little extra flour if you find the dough is too wet and sticky. Using a wooden spoon, bring the mix together to form a dough. Shape into a rough oval and place in the loaf tin.

Sprinkle with a little flour on top and bake in the oven for 35 minutes. The bread is cooked when you can turn it out on a wire rack, and when the bottom is tapped it should sound hollow. Allow to cool before slicing and enjoying with a little butter.

Donal demonstrates how to make this Irish classic in the video below. 

About Donal Skehan

With ten years under his belt as a TV host & award-winning food writer, Donal Skehan provides his audience with doable meals that anyone can master. A dad of two, Donal knows a thing or two about juggling parenthood, work and cooking!

Donal has released 10 cookbooks, with his most recent, Everyday Cook, having won Ireland’s Cookbook of the Year in 2021 and reached number six in the Amazon United Kingdom book charts.

* Originally published in Aug 2015, updated in May 2023.